More car dealers tank

[Crunch Hardtack]

Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122515313773474407.html

Excerpt: "The National Automobile Dealers Association estimates 700 new-car dealerships will close this year, up from 430 last year, and taking with them an estimated 37,100 jobs. That is a heavy blow to a key piece of the U.S. economy. The country's 20,700 dealerships accounted for $693 billion in sales last year, or 18% of all retail sales, according to NADA. Dealership wages and salaries make up 13% of the nation's retail payroll."

 

[Workbox]

I heard on the radio that Repos is at an all time high.

 

[Lawrence R.]

I have a close friend that owns all 3 of the big 3 dealerships. He has been struggling for about 7 years now.

He has recently opened 4 used car operations under the same name as the franchise lots.

He is making more money at the 4 small lots than he is at the big new car lots.

He credits the success of the small operations to the credibility he has b/c he is a franchise dealer.

He said he would love to sell his 3 new car lots and just have the used car operation, but he is scared he would see his business decline. That, and nobody is buying franchise dealerships too much right now.

 

[Lloyd Bonafide]

Some cities that depend on sales taxes from auto malls are getting killed by slow sales.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/10/27/business/z6fe48c82ca54f44c882574ef006993e7.txt

Cars and truck sales plunged 33 percent in the third quarter as nervous consumers stepped on the brakes and some lenders tightened credit further, a dealers group reported Monday.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/200...condido/zee648f35ec3f8526882574e800705e68.txt

Auto dealers are crucial to Escondido because the roughly $25 million in sales tax they generate each year covers most of the city's budget for police, fire and other services.

 

[Crunch Hardtack]

From the article: "Dealership wages and salaries make up 13% of the nation's retail payroll." Now couple this with job losses from the financial sector and the real estate and construction sectors and you are looking at a serious problem. These sectors, including blue collar auto assembly, account for a large amount of the good paying jobs....and the folks who get paid well pay the bulk of the taxes. Can someone please offer a scenario for a quick, sustained economic recovery?

 

[ghrousseau]

From the article: "Dealership wages and salaries make up 13% of the nation's retail payroll." Now couple this with job losses from the financial sector and the real estate and construction sectors and you are looking at a serious problem. These sectors, including blue collar auto asembly, account for a large amount of the good paying jobs....and the folks who get paid well pay the bulk of the taxes. Can someone please offer a scenario for a quick, sustained economic recovery?

There really isn't one. 80% of our economy is serviced based at this point. The manufacturing sector will also be hit because the recession is global at this point. Consumer confidence is at a 41 year low since they started keeping track. We have a very unpopular war that is pumping huge amounts of cash outside the US. I think if we had some massive investment in energy production domestically and infrastructure then we could generate some good paying jobs. If we started on nuclear power plants, massive wind farm projects, clean coal/oil shale, and fleet/public transportation conversion to CNG then we could generate some employment. I think the federal government should also bring back the federal enterprise zone concept for some areas. This helps with some long term redevelopment of areas. Also, we need to look at ways to create incentive for companies to plan strategically long term vs the current quarter to quarter stock price target mentality. We've seen recently what that type of thinking gets you. And the most important thing we need to do is shrink government spending and transfer payments. Our ability to finance long term government debt is going to be harder and harder in the future. I think we should bite the bullet as a nation and make balanced budgets a requirement at the state and federal level. It would stop so much of the vote buying giveaway spending crap we see now.

 

[The Warrior Monk]

Of course one my assignments coming down the pike is a large car dealerhsip.:Eyecrazy:

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

This is spiralling downward downward.....

Locally, our county property taxes got so high one dealer moved into Missouri and the car lots ring the county which shares the border with 2 other states.

 

[Restrain]

Got one here that just shut down. Experienced dealer, just couldn't get the credit to sell the cars. Had the product, had the potential customers, just didn't have the in-house financing.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

hmm...any bargains? I got cash and am in the market...i write checks.

the Impala is sched. for dismantling the tranny tomorrow. If it can be fixed i should be back in it by monday. If full rebuild maybe a day or two more. I predict it will cease being my auto by wednesday of next week... $500 under low NADA book. any takers